"Buenos Tacos" is our standard greeting when Lucho (our Junglemaster director in Peru) and I phone each other...its a code for "all is well"....This time, what I heard was, "Tomas, I need to tell you something....... (my heart sank, I knew something was wrong)............... "Leandro is in the hospital, he is very sick."

"Oh no, please Jesus no", I prayed..........you see; I felt like I let Leandro down.....Leandro is 11 years old and the son of one of our staff members in Peru. Leandro is very small for 11 because has a hole in his heart from a birth defect.

Last year I started to look into getting him help but ran up against walls and down dead ends. By May we were suffering from our own financial issues and I was scrambling to find ways to fix our own problems, The fact is I just plain dropped the ball.

I was Praying hard, "Lord strengthen him so we can get him help, I won't let him down again. please Jesus get him through this".....I told Lucho to do whatever he had to do to help, somehow God will provide, its the right thing to do and God will honor that...... but we can't let Leandro down.

For three days, Leandro struggled to survive, the Doctors were doing everything a jungle hospital could do, I called Lucho twice a day to check on Leandro. On Sunday I got word, Leandro was better. Lucho called it a miracle, the Doctors weren't sure why he was getting better. If you have ever been in a hospital in Iquitos you would agree it had to be the hand of God that made Leandro better.

Today Leandro is back home. I sent Lucho to Lima to ask if they can fix the problem there and how much it would cost. The social medicine in Peru doesn't cover heart operations..Lima has McDonalds and Burger kings, they must have heart surgeons...

Then... think of who you know, what connections you have and how we can save Leandros life. I decided the moment that I heard he was in the hospital that all the Missions Conferences, mission trips, outboard motors, buildings and stuff didn't make any difference if we didn't do everything possible to help Leandro...........

Little guys like Leandro is why we do missions, its not just the core of what we do, its the heart of all we do.